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Review by Geohominid July 22, 2007 (10 of 10 found this review helpful)
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Performance: Sonics (S/MC): / |
Bruckner's Romantic Symphony (the title is his own) was the first of his symphonies I ever heard, and I've had a soft spot for it ever since.
Jaap van Sweden was the youngest leader ever of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra (at the age of 19), and he took up a conducting career in 1995. Presently he is the Principal Conductor and Artistic Director of the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra (NRPO). I am always interested to hear how a conductor with a solid background as an orchestral player himself deals with his own orchestra. Exton appear to be recording the Bruckner cycle, but only the 4th and 7th appear to have become easily available for Europeans like myself. Perhaps we should await other reviews and the completion of the cycle before pronouncing on van Sweden's credentials as a Brucknerian. However, my experience of his Romantic symphony was a very positive and enjoyable one. The NRPO appear to have a real rapport with their director, and are a very fine orchestra, producing a solid Bruckner sound in their Hilversum studio, which is quite a reverberant space. Most importantly, van Sweden seems to have a clear structural map of the work in his head, so that there is a sense of knowing where he is going, both within each movement and in the final culmination of the work as a whole. He uses the Nowak Edition of 1880-81 (the one without the cuts).
Bruckner was clear that this symphony had a (rather Wagnerian) programme, as revealed to a friend. The first movement, with its hushed opening, portrays a Medieval town at dawn. Van Zweden and the Exton sound engineers give us a real sensation of the tense expectation of dawn, with soft horn calls echoing across the mountain passes heralding the first rays of light, reaching an impressive climax as the new day begins and 'the gates of the town open'). For once, the bow-on-string texture of the string sound is clearly audible by courtesy of DSD's ability to carry tremendous detail even at very low volumes - frisson-making! But note, you will need a very qiet room to hear the real pianissimos. The programme is also clear when 'the fine knights ride into the open' with heavy brass and a characteristic rhythmic figure (somewhat pompous knights, I always feel!). The arrival of the lyrical folk-like second subject group brings splendid rich sonority from the 'cellos and violas, with climaxes of really saturated string tone from the whole ensemble ('the forest with its beauties'). The development is vivid, with woodwind taking over the initial horn calls and making them into birdsong, and the transformation of the various themes is clearly presented, with much fine orchestral detail. Curiously, van Zweden made me think of the Sibelius approach to symphonic writing in this movement, which had not occurred to me before.
The second movement goes at a good walking pace, with the 'cellos expressively singing under a violin descant, their march-rhythm melody beginning with the first few notes of the horn calls at the symphony's opening. I feel that the several tempo changes in this movement during development of its material are taken naturally and organically, and the movement reaches a radiant climax, as if we have come upon a majestic river flowing through the forest, before we are led on to a soft ending.
The Scherzo was described by Bruckner as a hunting scene. In fact, there are two hunting parties in the forest, one with horns on the left, the other portrayed by trumpets and trombones on the right of the stage. These two parties engage in confrontations which are exciting and great fun, before the hunters stop at an inn they find in a forest clearing, enjoying the rustic ländler with a few ales. no doubt. The scherzo is then reprised, and van Zweden whips up a thrilling final ride, with brass on their mettle as the forest resounds to the pounding hooves, and we reach a majestic climax for the end of the movement.
The last movement is difficult to bring off convincingly. Bruckner somewhat deserts his picturesque programme for his metaphysical musings, and as a one-time Editor, I feel that wielding a red pencil would have helped his listeners. However, van Zweden still seems to have the map of this meandering maze-like movement in full view, so he leads us confidently through the block-like episodes of false-crescendos and gentle rustic cameos to the final journey, an appearance of the first movement's horn call which sets the work alight with an elemental Wagnerian close in a vision of radiance.
While others may differ, I found this performance very fine, highly enjoyable and deeply convincing, and it makes me look forward to hearing others in the series, although there is already some strong SACD competition there.
As for the DSD 5.0 recording, in MC it is high, wide, deep and handsome, with good detail and excellent perspectives - and a fully-functioning centre channel, sometimes an issue with Exton. It is recorded at an rather low level overall, so getting the volume control correct is important, otherwise your amp may go into overload at the biggest climaxes. My only quibbles are that the big crescendos begin to loose a lot of detail in the reverberant hall, and there is some coarsening and grain in the loudest textures. I also felt a slight lack of bass presence in the first three movements, despite my sub-woofer getting LF feed, but this certainly changes in the last movement, where the somewhat anonymous timpani become much more prominent and incisive, with the tuba and bass trombone also gaining welcome gravitas. So, a fine recording, but perhaps not up to the best that DSD can do in transparency and consistency. The stereo mix is excellent, but the hall does sound a little boomy at the bottom end.
The mainly Japanese sleeve notes have English biographies of the NRPO and van Sweden, and a separate insert in English has a very useful essay on Bruckner and the 'Romantic', so Exton is beginning to have an eye towards markets other than Japan.
A disc I shall be happy to go back to many times; it already reveals new details at every hearing.
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